Chapter 103: A quiet building

“Adrian.”

I flinched and looked up.

“What the fuck are you waiting for? Let’s go.” Aubrey’s voice was tight, stretched thin. One more push and she’d be yelling.

Behind me, I could feel Mark and Agnes staring holes into my back. I didn’t nod. Didn’t signal anything. I just stood there, caught between two sides of the same nightmare.

Then I looked at Lila.

“Come on,” I said quietly. “Let’s go.”

She pushed herself to her feet.

“Hey—hey—hey. Where the fuck are you going?” Aubrey snapped, her gun shifting toward Lila.

Lila didn’t raise her hands this time. She just stared back at Aubrey, her face blank, almost tired.

I looked at Aubrey, my resolve slipping for a second. “Aubrey… listen to me.”

“No. You listen to me,” she shot back. “I’m tired of going back and forth with you on this. She’s the enemy. She proved that when she helped those freaks kill our men at Fort Sam Houston.”

The words hit harder than I expected. I had almost buried that memory.

My eyes drifted to Lila. She was looking at me in a way I couldn’t read. There was something in her face—maybe fear, maybe hope, maybe something darker that I didn’t want to name.

“You say goodbye to your little science buddies and come on,” Aubrey said. “We need to move.”

I took a slow breath.

Her expression shifted. She already knew what I was going to say.

“Aubrey… I’m not leaving without her.”

Silence filled the hallway.

Her eyes widened for a split second before they hardened again. “…You’re serious.”

I didn’t answer. I didn’t have to.

“You’re really going to stay with this freak?” she demanded. “She’s been the source of half our problems since the apocalypse started.”

“I’m not choosing sides,” I said, though it sounded weak even to me. “She can come with us. We can figure it out.”

“Not gonna happen,” Isabella cut in.

I looked at her, and for the first time since she walked in, I saw the hurt in her face.

“She almost killed my dad,” Isabella said. “Nobody’s safe around her.”

So she knew. She’d seen it.

“Just stop this,” Isabella added, her voice lower now, like she didn’t want to push me any further. “We don’t have time.”

The building groaned around us. Distant shouts echoed from outside. This place wasn’t going to hold for long.

I stood there, feeling the weight of every pair of eyes on me.

For the first time since all of this began, I didn’t know what the right move was. I didn’t even know what the smart move was.

All I knew was that whatever I chose next was going to cost me something I couldn’t get back.

The seconds passed, and I finally opened my mouth to speak—

Glass exploded.

Gunshots ripped through the windows.

“SHIT! GET DOWN—!” Aubrey screamed.

I grabbed Lila by the arm and dragged her with me. We dove behind a metal table as bullets chewed through the walls. Plaster rained down. Someone knocked over a tray. The sound rang in my ears.

I kept my body over Lila’s.

The shooting slowed.

I turned my head.

“Everyone o—…”

The words died in my throat.

Mark was on the floor.

Blood poured from his neck, thick and dark, spreading across the tile. His eyes were wide, confused. His chest jerked with short, wet breaths.

Oh, shit.

“POP!!” Agnes screamed.

She dropped beside him, pressing both hands against his throat. Blood soaked through her fingers. It didn’t slow.

Part of me wanted to grab her. Tell her to shut up. Tell her he was already gone and she was going to get us all killed.

That would’ve been the smart move.

I didn’t say it.

A voice boomed from outside.

“Greetings, friends.”

It was calm. Almost amused.

I felt my pulse in my temples.

“I understand we had an agreement,” the woman continued. “But there’s just one more thing.”

A pause.

“See… a little birdie told me you’re hiding some people we want dead. Assuming we didn’t accidentally shoot you, which I’m hoping we didn’t.”

My jaw tightened.

Agnes was still crying over her father, whispering for him to stay with her. His legs twitched once. Then again. Then slower.

“Just bring them out,” the woman called. “And we’ll leave you alone. For real this time.”

Silence filled the room.

No one moved.

—

Outside, boots scraped on gravel.

The woman holding the megaphone lowered it for a moment.

Seconds passed.

Then—

—

“Adrian… Carter, right?”

My stomach dropped.

“You better consider yourself already dead, sister-killer. Along with the friends you’re hiding with.”

Sister-killer…?

What the fuck was she talking about?

“You’ll pay for killing Yasmine.” Her voice cracked on the name.

Yasmine.

I let out a slow breath. My spine felt cold.

This was the part where the lattice should’ve kicked in. The clarity. The focus. The edge.

It didn’t.

Nothing.

Just noise. Fear. My heartbeat pounding too hard.

What the fuck was wrong with me?

Across the room, Aubrey looked at me.

Waiting.

Expecting me to switch on. To take control. To be the version of me that didn’t hesitate.

I gave a small shake of my head.

Nothing.

Her expression changed. The trust cracked first.

Then her eyes hardened.

“Go…”

The voice cracked behind me.

I looked back.

Agnes was on the floor, blood all over her hands, tears running down her face.

“Take your friends and just fucking go…” she said.

I stayed there a second longer than I should have.

Then I forced myself to move.

I stayed low and pushed toward the side hallway. Lila was right behind me. Close enough that I could feel her breathing on my neck. I expected that. She wasn’t letting me out of her sight.

Aubrey caught on fast. She saw us shifting and started moving too, Isabella tight on her heels.

Okay, Adrian… think.

Our car was outside. Engine still running.

And surrounded.

They were waiting for us to make that move.

We’d never make it ten feet.

That meant cutting through them. Taking something else in the lot.

Fear crawled up my spine.

Hotwiring under fire wasn’t ideal. Last time nearly got us killed.

Before I could think it through, Aubrey moved.

She smashed through what was left of a window and rolled out into the lot, gun already firing. Two quick shots. Someone dropped.

No hesitation.

No waiting on me.

I swore under my breath and followed, Lila and Isabella right behind.

Gunfire erupted. Glass shattered around us. Car alarms screamed.

We ducked between vehicles.

“There!” Isabella shouted.

A black Toyota Camry.

We piled in low. I kept my head down as bullets punched through metal. The windshield cracked.

Aubrey ripped open the panel under the wheel and twisted wires together fast, hands steady like she’d done it a hundred times.

The engine roared.

She slammed it into drive and floored it before they could box us in.

Behind us, a woman stepped into the lot, rifle raised.

She fired at the tires.

Missed.

“DAMN IT!!” she screamed as we tore out of range.

—

Minutes passed before anyone spoke.

The city blurred past. Chicago shrinking in the rearview.

Lila was in the back seat. No one had said anything about it.

Yet.

“Adrian, what the fuck was that?” Aubrey snapped.

I flinched.

“What was what—?”

“You didn’t signal to move. You froze. You hesitated long enough to get us killed.”

“I was thinking,” I shot back. “Okay?”

“There’s no time to think,” she said coldly. “You should already know that.”

I didn’t answer.

The smell of burnt wires and something metallic filled the car. Blood. Probably mine. Or someone else’s. Hard to tell anymore.

“Listen,” Aubrey went on, jaw tight, “I don’t know what the hell’s been going on with you lately, but get your damn head on straight. Are we clear?”

I stared ahead.

“I said are we—”

“I fucking heard you,” I snapped.

She scoffed.

Isabella shifted in her seat, uncomfortable. The tension in the car felt thick enough to choke on.

Lila stayed quiet in the back. Not a word.

“And just so we’re clear,” Aubrey added, eyes locked on the road, “she’s not coming back to the compound with us.”

“Aubrey—”

“We leave Chicago. We drop her somewhere in Missouri. After that, we’re done.”

The words hit harder than the bullets earlier.

I looked back at Lila.

She didn’t react. No anger. No fear.

Just silence.

Something sharp twisted in my gut.

I leaned back in the seat and stared at the cracked windshield.

This was so fucked.

—

Boots stepped through broken glass.

Slow. Careful.

Agnes heard them.

She didn’t move.

She was still kneeling beside her father, hands pressed to his neck even though the blood had already slowed to a dark, useless trickle. His eyes stared at nothing. His chest didn’t rise anymore.

Tears kept sliding down her face.

But her expression was gone, empty.

A shadow fell over her.

“Awh… would you look at that.”

The woman’s voice was almost playful.

Agnes didn’t look up.

“Choices, choices,” the woman went on. “And you just had to make the wrong one.”

The smell of gunpowder still hung in the air. Smoke drifted from the hallway.

Agnes’s hands slowly slipped from her father’s neck and rested in her lap. Blood coated her fingers. It dripped onto the tile.

The woman stepped closer.

A gun clicked.

Cold metal pressed against Agnes’s forehead.

“Say hi to your daddy for me, would you?”

Agnes finally blinked. Not in fear. She was tired.

The shot rang out.

Her body dropped beside her father’s.

The building went quiet.

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